Conjunctival blood flow after endovascular laser therapy in patients with diabetic nephropathy

Abstract

The conjunctival bloodflow was examined in patients with diabetic nephropathy with different status of renal function and changes in the microcirculatory bed assessed after endovascular laser therapy. Twenty-five donors and twenty-one patients with medium-severe and grave type I diabetes complicated by diabetic nephropathy were followed up. Microcirculatory disorders in the eyeball conjunctiva progressed as renal function deteriorated, which was evident from a reliable increase of the total conjunctival index in parallel with the progress of chronic- renal insufficiency. A course of endovascular laser therapy reliably improved the microcirculation: the arterio-venular coefficient increased and the total conjunctival index decreased in patients with latent and conservatively curable stages of chronic renal insufficiency due to normalization of vascular tone, boosting of the bloodflow, and decrease of red cell sludging.